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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

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Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, center, gets doused by senior wide receiver Jake Stoneburner after their 26-21 win over Michigan in an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio. / Mark Duncan/AP

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It was a surreal moment, but it underscored with absolute clarity Ohio State's football mission statement.

The Buckeyes honored their 2002 national championship team before playing Michigan last week. Disgraced coach Jim Tressel returned to Ohio Stadium for the first time since he was forced out for his duplicity in the university's major football scandal.

He's a liar. He's a cheat. He should be a pariah. But he was hailed as a returning hero. The crowd "honored" Tressel with a standing ovation. His former players triumphantly lifted him on their shoulders.

I asked a university official at halftime if I was the only person in attendance who could taste the bile after such a display. He told me that it was more important honoring the "positives" of Tressel's reign with the Buckeyes than letting the "negatives" completely overshadow it.

But they're intertwined now. There's no longer any separation between the two in the ends-justifying-means high-stakes world of national championship college football.

I've maintained this for years, much to the chagrin of Michigan fans fooling themselves that the Wolverines and Buckeyes are competitive equals. For better and worse, Ohio State's actions last week reaffirmed why it's the Big Ten's only reasonable shot at restoring national credibility.

The Buckeyes have no conscience.

Many are holding their breath tonight in Indianapolis that Nebraska will win the conference's second football championship game. League officials will sleep a little easier if it's the 11-2 Cornhuskers going to Pasadena, Calif., rather than five-loss Wisconsin throwing everybody another easy Big Ten punch line as the conference's lone BCS bowl representative this season.

Nebraska should win this game rather comfortably.

But the more important countdown begins after tonight's game when the Big Ten finally can get the team it really wants on this stage -- the Buckeyes.

They didn't qualify last season because of the immediate mess Tressel left behind. They couldn't qualify this year despite a 12-0 record in Urban Meyer's inaugural season because the university opted for a one-year bowl ban as part of its self-inflicted NCAA punishment.

But the Buckeyes will enter next season as one of the early favorites for a berth in the last BCS championship game -- which incidentally will be held at the Rose Bowl. Don't forget that the underlying motivation for creating this conference championship -- aside from the financial benefits -- was improving the conference's chances of winning late voting and computer support for a BCS title game invitation.

Next year, the Big Ten gets back the program that's perfectly comfortable with the ethical flexibility required for teams that simply don't want national titles, but need them for their own validation. Michigan and Michigan State aren't those programs. Both have had their issues, but to their credit neither egregiously blurs the line between what's right and what's expedient.

But in the future, they'll continually beat each other up in the Legends Division along with the Cornhuskers and Iowa. Meanwhile, the Buckeyes will have a relatively easy path to the excellent record mandated for a top-four finish and qualification for the new playoff that begins in 2014 -- a road that becomes even easier for Ohio State if newcomers Maryland and Rutgers join the Leaders Division.